Recently with the popularity of off track motorcycling, motorcycle manufacturers have had to cater to the needs of the motorcycle enthusiast in providing sophisticated shock absorbers which are selectively controllable so as to permit use of the motorcycle not only for off road use but also for on road use.
The usual and conventional shock absorber of the type found for use in motorcycles generally has an outer helical spring in its structure which in most instances is adjustable so as to vary the pre-load forces of the spring in order to accommodate the variance in responses to which the absorber is subjected and in many instances, it is necessary to compress or decompress a spring in such a shock absorber in order to have more or less damping as the user may require.
Some of the shock absorbers in the prior art, particularly those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,710 for SHOCK ABSORBER, issued Nov. 19, 1974, illustrate adjustable helical spring devices. In the type of shock absorber disclosed in the aforesaid patent, a pair of retaining rings is utilized in order to position the helical spring in secure fashion. The lower retaining member, in the normal position in which the shock absorber is utilized, is adjustable over a portion of its length and even in other shock absorbers where the retaining members for the helical spring are adjustable through various modes, it becomes necessary in order to make the adjustment to the helical spring to, in the first instance, compress the spring so as to take the load off the movable retaining member so that it may be moved longitudinally of the axis of the shock absorber in order to vary the pre-load on the helical spring.
With the herein disclosed invention, a simple, safe and effective tool is provided which provides ease of compressing in the first instance, a helical spring, whether it is right hand wound or left-hand wound, so as to be able to relocate the one retaining member against which the helical spring bears when in proper use.
The tool of this invention is compact, economically manufactured and essentially trouble free in operation. By simply inserting the tool along a rod or other axle normally making up the shock absorber structure, intermediate adjacent windings of the helical spring and by the utilization of a leverage means such as a handle, it is easy to obtain compression of the spring so as to relieve loads on the one adjustable spring retaining ring or clamp so that the ring may be adjusted to the selected limit in order to vary the pre-load on the spring. Once the retaining ring has been newly positioned, the tool of the invention is simply backed down or reversibly rotated to bring the spring to bear against the retaining ring or clamp.